New Zealand

What We Did: We spent a total of 25 days travelling from Auckland to Christchurch, heading straight down the North Island and then nearly circling the South Island from Picton to Christchurch. In the North Island, we stayed in Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo, and Wellington. In the South Island, we stayed in Picton, Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef, Wanaka, Queenstown, and Christchurch.

Overall Impression: We flat-out loved this country. So many amazing things to see. So many amazing things to do. Kevin had already been here six years ago, but he was blown away for a second time. And Amy is convinced that New Zealand will be her favorite country on the trip.

How We Travelled: We took the “Magic Bus” from place to place, a poorly-named, hop-on, hop-off bus system that runs throughout the country. (Yes, it sounds like something out of a bad Cheech and Chong movie). While on the bus, the bus driver will detour to various sights and activities along the way and also book or recommend activities and accommodation at your destination. Best of all, the bus system provides total flexibility. If we decided to stay at a place for an extra day (or three), not a problem; another bus comes through each day and we could just hop on a bus on whichever day we wanted. Makes travelling very easy. Plus, it’s a great way to meet people. The bus is filled with similar-aged travelers from all over the world (most from Europe; very few from the U.S.). It wasn’t uncommon to be sitting on the bus next to six different people from six different countries.

Activities: Activities are limitless in this country. We went blackwater cave rafting; rafted the tallest commercially-rafted waterfall in the world; hiked on, in, and through Franz Josef glacier; hiked and kayaked in Abel Tasman National Park; hiked the three-day Routeburn Track and a part of the Queen Charlotte Track; went canyoning down and through waterfalls; played Frisbee golf repeatedly; did street luge and ice climbing; and, of course, went bungee jumping.

Favorite Activity: Amy’s favorite was bungee jumping in Queenstown. Kevin’s favorite was the glacier hiking in Franz Josef.

Favorite City: Amy loved the town of Nelson in the South Island. Charming downtown, hot weather, and a nearby beach. Kevin’s favorite was Queenstown. Picturesque setting, great restaurants, and a limitless amount of activities. We both also really liked Wanaka, Picton, and Wellington.

Most Disappointing: The North Island. We enjoyed our time on the North Island (especially in Wellington), but—if we could do it again—we might have chosen instead to ditch our week on the North Island and spend more time on the South Island. The South Island blows away its northern neighbor.

Costs: We were fortunate to benefit from a fantastic exchange rate: the average rate was $1 NZ = $0.53 US, or almost half-price. We spent a huge chunk of our budget on thrill-seeking activities (which are often very expensive), but food and accommodation is quite reasonable. For accommodation, we averaged about $40 U.S. per night for a private hostel room with a bathroom, or $80 US per night when we sprung for a good mid-range hotel. Hot dishes for breakfast and lunch we found to be about 30 percent cheaper than in the U.S., while a gourmet restaurant for dinner is typically 50 percent cheaper. A steak, fish, or lamb at a top-notch restaurant, for instance, is typically priced at only $12-$15 U.S.

Food and Drink: The food was consistently great throughout our travels. Amy had muesli with yogurt and fruit almost every morning (and raved about it almost every morning), while—shockingly---we had the best breakfast burritos of our lives in Wellington (yes, a lonnng way from Mexico) and incredible veggie burgers at various stops. For dinner, we had great lamb and mussels (as we expected) but also had fantastic Indian food, pizza, steak, sushi, seafood, etc., etc. The wine and beer are also consistently good.

People: In general, Kiwis are incredibly friendly and outgoing people with often a dry sense of humor.

Weather: The South Island typically has unpredictable weather (even in the summer), but we had mostly sunny skies throughout with temperatures generally in the low to mid-70s. Very nice. Our only disappointment was that windy weather in Taupo kept us from hiking the Tongariro Crossing.

Next Up: We are spending four days in Sydney before heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 14, where we will begin our 6-week leg in Southeast Asia. We're a bit sad to be leaving New Zealand/Australia, but we're excited to head to a region that looks and feels nothing like we're used to. The adventure continues!

(Written on Sunday, 2/8/09)

I….DID….IT…!!! “Did what?!?” you may be asking. Did the one thing that I absolutely could not leave New Zealand before doing. The one thing that I was the most scared of attempting and waited until the last possible day before getting the courage to go through with it. The one thing, that required a phone call to my sister to muster up what it took to sign on the dotted line (yes, signing my life away). The one thing that defines Kiwi culture above and beyond everything else: more than ice climbing, glacier hiking, river rafting, fjord tramping, and alcohol consuming (yes, even more than that).

I COMPLETED A BUNGY JUMP!!! (And – even better – have lived to tell you about it.)

It is true – bungy jumping, which is now popular in many parts of the world (though nowhere near as popular as it is here in the Kiwi country), originated in New Zealand. A.J. Hackett became famous for creating the world’s first commercialized bungy jump. Today, he has many different jumps throughout New Zealand, and even a few others sprinkled throughout the rest of the world – I hear that Whistler has one. So far on our tour of New Zealand, we have passed up several opportunities to bungy. However, nowhere in New Zealand is it as popular as it is in Queenstown. There are so many to choose between in Queenstown, it can make you dizzy. It was a difficult decision to choose which one to jump – but ultimately Kevin and I decided on the Kawarau River Bridge Jump – the world’s very first bungy jumping site. Now Kevin left this decision on which jump to take – and frankly whether I should jump at all – completely up to me. When Kevin was in NZ six years ago he completed all of the A.J. Hackett jumps in Queenstown. (There are more jumps today than when he was previously here).

I decided on the Kawarau River Bridge jump for multiple reasons – it’s the only jump where they allow you to jump tandem with another person (so I would be able to jump arm-in-arm with Kevin, which built up my confidence some). Another reason is it is not the longest jump – the jump is just 43 meters (about 141 feet) from a bridge over the river. The largest jump is the Nevis Canyon jump – which would be 137 meters high! Plus – I would have to jump the Nevis alone. Finally, if I was going to get one jump in, it felt fitting that it would be from the world’s original bungy jump. So on Friday, we booked ourselves for a tandem jump from the Kawarau Bridge for the next day – Saturday. I was feeling confident. No nerves at booking time. (Maybe this was going to be easier than I thought).

Saturday at noon we caught the bungy bus with 10 other passengers for a 25 minute ride to the bungy site. It was starting to feel real, and I could feel the butterflies starting to come out of their cocoons in my stomach. I turned to Kevin and asked him whether he was nervous – not a lick. Great. But I still thought if this is as nervous as I get then it’s not that bad. Then the music started. Our driver played several songs during the ride out – Knocking on Heaven’s Door, Highway to Hell, among others. Okay – those crazy A.J. Hackett people should be calming us down – instead their trying to superficiously get us freaked. It was working! Are we really doing this?? The only sense of comfort that I had was Kevin did 3 jumps 6 years ago – he lived, and in 6 years they must have made even more safety improvements, right?

As if this wasn’t bad enough, it was this point when I realized Kevin and I were in flip-flops….everyone else had on tennis shoes. We would be jumping barefoot while the norm seemed to be with bulky athletic shoes. My head started doing the calculations. You are strapped into the bungies by your ankles. Certainly the bulkier of the shoe that you had on would help prevent the bungy from slipping off your ankles…since we were barefoot --- would that mean that there was a greater likelihood that the straps could come off our feet? I looked at Kevin’s feet and mine. At least he has wide feet – harder for the straps to slip off of. But I have such freakishly narrow feet….. I shared this concern with Kevin and he tried to reassure me that it would be fine. But I later noticed he was searching the bus himself checking out everyone’s feet….oh no…is my source of confidence starting to get concerned too??

We arrived at the bungy site and quickly registered – we were weighed separately and then our weights added together to determine the amount of bungy and type that would be used during our jump. They wrote these numbers on our hands – I quickly checked her math myself before heading to the jumping platform as I didn’t want to trust the clerk behind the registration counter with our lives – I seriously doubt A.J. Hackett requires math degrees for these positions. Yup….her math was correct. Okay, now we were told to walk out to the bridge and wait our turn.

At this point the butterflies in my stomach are going crazy….we were 3rd in line. We watched the first person go ahead of us. Instead of jumping, he hesitated and then basically just fell off the platform. Okay, one more to go and then it’s our turn. Oh god. And then the guy harnessing the jumpers asks me my weight…”Oh no, we’re not next…we’re behind this guy” I say quickly and point to the jumper ahead of me. The employee then tells me, “Nope…you’re next”. I feel my stomach drop before we even jump. I wasn’t ready!!

So Kevin and I take our seats in the little platform box built off of the bridge. They quickly put the bungy harnesses around our ankles, constantly tightening them and checking them for proper fit. The guy wrapping Kevin’s ankles turns to the other employee and says “now is it twice around the ankle and then through, or through the ankles and then twice around?”. You’ve got to be kidding me right?? Then I see the smirk on his face as he looks at me. Okay, he was kidding me, right? Yes, Amy, certainly he was. He had to be.

They asked us if we wanted to touch the water. Kevin and I talked about this before hand – we decided that we wanted to touch – or be dunked – in the water. So I respond a quick and probably barely coherhent “um, yeah”. Then they gave us some short instructions. Just that we were to put one arm around each other and leave our outside arms up in the air – when we got to the water these arms should break the water and we duck our heads when entering (chin to chest). That’s it. “Now scoot out to the platform and wait for our count” he said. With our ankles wrapped together, scooting out to the platform was not an easy task. I was deathly afraid that I would scoot too far and down I would go. But we managed to get to the edge and I had a deaths hold grip on Kevin’s side. On the count of three we would jump – I bore into myself to not look down no matter what – I knew I wouldn’t be able to jump otherwise. Instead, I focused on a tree in the distance and waited for his count – I blocked everything else out of my mind. Then I heard the count – 1….2….3! And so I jumped straight into the air and I felt Kevin jump with me and it’s a feeling that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to describe accurately.

You know that feeling you get when your stomach drops on a roller coaster? Well multiply that by a zillion. I felt my whole body tense up and my stomach disappear somewhere….like it was asking me what the hell I was doing jumping off a bridge! I don’t think I breathed for those few seconds…and then I saw the ground, or the river actually, getting closer and closer and closer and somehow I felt my body relax….and just as we were getting about to hit the water we prepared by lowering our heads for impact, and then “boing!” we were bounced back up in the air. We didn’t touch the water, but the experience was exhilarating. As we hung there by our feet bouncing up and back down a few times, I couldn’t help but scream out in pure joy – it was so much fun!

Then the raft came underneath us and we were lowered in. The jump was over…all 60 seconds later. But the buzz still lived on. I was joyous. Afterwards I wanted to do it again. I was so high on the bungy jumping that I wanted to somehow figure out how to get another jump in – this time on The Nevis – the 2nd highest bungy jump in the world! (The first is in South Africa). There was no time left yesterday, so we went to an internet café to see if there was any way we could delay our travel to Christchurch one day and still make our flight to Sydney on time. Alas, there was no way. So the Bridge jump will end my bungy jumping in New Zealand (my mom is breathing a sigh of relief).

Today we caught our flight for Sydney and left New Zealand to our memories and blogs. It was a wonderful 3 ½ weeks and will be difficult to beat. But now we look forward to our next adventures in Australia and beyond.

In the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to a future visit to Whistler (I hear they have bungy…).

Miss you!

The country of New Zealand has designated nine so-called “Great Walks,” which are multi-day hiking treks that require advance bookings (sometimes months in advance). Amy and I chose to take on the Routeburn Track, a 24-mile, 3-day hike through the mountains of Fiordland National Park in the southern part of the South Island. After spending three days on the track, we emerged tired, sore, and—in my case anyways—quite dirty and smelly. (If anyone ever offers you cologne called “Three Days on the Routeburn,” you should be very, very afraid….) But we also hiked most of the track with huge grins on our faces. Time and time again, we were blown away by the eye-popping beauty of area. The Routeburn Track has some of the most diverse and spectacular scenery we have ever seen. Huge, impossibly steep peaks surround you at every turn. Glaciers, waterfalls, rainforest, beech forest, gorges, lakes, swing bridges….. Wow.

Prior to setting off on the hike, we rented backpacks, sleeping bags, and cookware in Queenstown and also took along three days worth of food. (Most hikers try to make their packs as light as possible. Us? Well, uh, we stubbornly brought along two boxes of wine…. although I suppose the alcohol helped with the added back pain---so maybe it’s a wash.) In lieu of tents, our accommodation along the track were spartan “huts,” which provide roughly fifty hikers each night with a non-heated bunkhouse, a communal kitchen and living area, and bathrooms (but no showers). We greatly enjoyed cooking our dinner, socializing, and playing cards amongst travelers and languages from all over the world…. Although, then again, we did not enjoy listening each night to snorers and sleeptalkers from all over the world. (Next time: Bring ear plugs!)

We lucked out with two days of sun, although we hit a bit of fog on our second day that prevented us from seeing much of anything from the track’s summit. I just wish that our photos did justice to the stunning beauty of this track…

At the end of the track, we caught a shuttle to nearby Milford Sound before finally heading back to Queenstown. While at Milford Sound, we took a boat cruise through the sound….. and I’ll just let the pictures fill you in. (Hint: It did not suck.)

Hard to believe, but we only have two more days in New Zealand before heading to Australia. We are catching a bus tomorrow to Christchurch---but we can’t leave Queenstown without doing what Queenstown is famous for: bungee jumping. Stay tuned!

OK, let me first get the record straight: This was Amy’s idea, not mine. (I swear!) We had originally planned to spend our full day in Wanaka hiking the Rob Roy Glacier Valley.... but Amy had other ideas. During a lunch stop on our way to Wanaka, she stumbled upon a brochure for canyoning…. and, on a whim, our plans had suddenly changed. Instead of the standard hiking trip, we would now be “hiking” in and through the Niger Stream (which cuts through a steep, narrow canyon) using nothing but some rope, a harness, a wet suit---and a whole lot of gravity. Canyoning involves abseiling and rapelling down waterfalls…. sliding down natural water chutes… swimming and floating through gorgeous,water-sculpted canyons… and leaping off ledges into water pools. (Very, very fun. And such a unique experience.)

I think the pictures and videos explain it best….. (And, yes, we both loved it. Great idea, Amy!)

Hello to all our family and friends!

Wow, it has been too long since we’ve last been in touch. We just spent two fantastic days in the town of Franz Josef, fitting in kayaking, ice climbing, and a “glacier adventure.” So much fun!

Franz Josef is a tiny, two-horse town that thrives because it is at the base of one of the world’s largest glaciers---and the only glacier in the world that is surrounded by a natural rain forest. Due to being in a rain forest, Franz Josef gets a ton of rain: 180 days of rain and an equivalent of 185 inches of rain each year! (As comparison, Seattle gets 37 inches of rain of year…. Franz Josef eats that for breakfast!)

However, that being said, we must have lucked out during our 2 night stay because we didn’t get any rain---and even a bit of sun! (Some overcast clouds, yes, but no rain). While the town of Franz Josef is nothing to write home about (it has maybe 4 or 5 restaurants in the whole town and 1 small grocery that only gets deliveries every 2 weeks – no raw meats sold here), we kept ourselves VERY busy with activities. Franz Josef is truly an adventurer’s paradise. They offer rafting, boating, paragliding, skydiving, you name it. But what they are most famous for is their glacier hiking and climbing. And now I know why.

I first tried ice climbing soon after we arrived Tuesday afternoon. It was an indoor ice climbing facility that we stumbled upon (when I say stumbled upon, I mean that the huge building stood out among the 10 other buildings downtown like a beacon – you couldn’t miss it). Kev decided to sit this one out and take photos (he has elbow issues), but I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather being doing – it was a real ice environment that they created indoors! After a few minutes, I found myself hooked up to pulleys & ropes, with my ice axes in hand and starting my climbs. It was exhilarating! I had such a great time but have never been worn out so quickly – this was easily twice or three times as exhausting as indoor rock climbing walls. After three climbs, I was done…

That evening, Kevin and I joined a sunset kayaking trip on Lake Mapourika. It was gorgeous! The lake was stunning with the mountains and glaciers on display all around us – again a postcard photo moment. Part of the trip included floating through a river that looked like a glass mirror reflecting all the stunning landscapes around us. It was difficult to tell where the water ended and the sky began. It was like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we did what we came to Franz Josef to do – an all-day, guided hike into the glaciers. This was easily our most favorite experience in New Zealand yet. Our guides started out by providing us with some gear (specifically “crampons” to attach to our boots which looked like the jaws of death – you definitely wouldn’t want to be barefoot around anyone wearing these!). After giving us some instructions we were off. It included a hike to the base of the glacier (about 1 hour) and then the rest of the day we were climbing up, on, and through the glacier itself!! This included some tricky maneuvering at times, such as wedging yourself through walls of ice – one guy even got stuck for a little while until he could free his backpack – climbing through tunnels, using ropes to climb up steep walls of ice, and crossing gaps and ledges.

All the while our guide would be leading us by using his ice ax to blaze a “trail” for us, creating stairs or grooved areas where we could gain traction for our climbs. It was insane! But such an amazing experience. At one point, we were each given our own ice axe (a smaller version of the guide’s) and while it wasn’t as useful for me in completing my hike, it did make for some great pictures!

We left Franz Josef this morning to head to our next stop, Lake Wanaka, where we’ll be staying for two more nights (Thursday and Friday nights). Here we are hoping to fit in a canyoning adventure (www.deepcanyon.co.nz). I know….who is this girl?? I’m starting to not recognize me! It’s the Kiwi culture…it just gets into your skin!

Thanks to everyone who has left comments on our blogs – we love reading your notes and hearing from you. It’s almost been three weeks since we left Seattle, and homesickness is starting to set in a bit. We’ve passed the point of where all our other vacations have ended (2 weeks or less) and when looking at the whole itinerary, we see that we’ve only just begun. We are so excited about all the adventures that lie ahead for us, but we do miss our family and friends. New Zealand is awesome, and we’re meeting lots of great people. However, we know where our hearts lie. We love you!

Okay enough sap and onto the next stop – Wanaka! We hope that you are all well at home and look forward to being in touch soon. Also, if you want to see more, you can check out all of our pictures at our flickr site.

Cheers, mates!

To quote one of our favorite Kiwi sayings: “Sweet as!!” (American translation: It’s all good!!) We spent three nights in the town of Nelson, which was easily our favorite spot on the trip so far. Nelson and its surrounding area was full of “bests” for us: Best national park (Abel Tasman National Park might be the most scenic area we’ve ever seen); Best town (Nelson is a picturesque town with great outdoor cafes and a nearby beach); Best weather (nothing but cloudless, high 70s days); and Best hostel (even Amy was very happy with our accommodation here!). Definitely tough to beat. Sweet as!

On Saturday, we did a hiking/kayaking tour of Abel Tasman National Park, joined by three other travelers from our bus (all from Ireland). We took a water taxi into the Park and were dropped off at Torrent Bay, from where we hiked to a spot called Watering Cove about two hours or so away. The Park is outrageously pretty, with the clearest, most turquoise water we have ever seen. (Our pictures don’t do it justice.) We made it to the beach at Watering Cove about mid-day, where we stopped for lunch and a short swim.

At Watering Cove, the five of us met up with our guide and set out on kayaks for several hours. We paddled around tiny islands, stopped and swam at isolated beaches, and took in the jaw-dropping surroundings. Near the end of the day, the guide has us put our kayaks side-by-side and we attached a small sail to the front (held up at the back by our oars pointed at the sky)….. and we then used the wind to sail us back without paddling. Very cool.

On our second day, we had planned on doing a winery tour of various wineries in the Marlborough region….. but we felt lazy and spent the day at the beach instead. (Yup, those are the tough decisions we face each day!)

After Nelson, we are heading down the west coast of the South Island to Greymouth... which, according to Lonely Planet, is one of the top ten drives in the world. We'll let you know!

FYI, on a different note, we’ve learned that many of you don’t realize that you can “subscribe” to our blog---which means that you will be sent an email whenever we post a new entry. Just click “Subscribe” on the right side of this web page and then enter your email address.

Cheers!

(Written on Friday, 1/23/09)

Hello from the South Island!

Kevin and I just left Picton, the first town that we visited on the South Island of New Zealand. We arrived in Picton on Wednesday (our time) by the InterIsland Ferry. Now, this isn’t like any Seattle ferry boat that we’re so familiar with. When we arrived at the ferry terminal in Wellington, we thought for sure our boat hadn’t arrived yet…since the only thing we could see in the terminal is what looked like a large, slightly-aging cruise ship. Low and behold that was our ferry! But even more impressive than the boat was the 3-hour cruise from the North Island’s Wellington to our first South Island city of Picton. It was absolutely gorgeous! Like cruising through a post-card. I couldn’t keep Kevin in the boat with me (it was a little chilly for me on the deck). Kevin probably spent 80% of the cruise out on the deck enjoying the vistas (so the pictures below are his). I joined him for the last 20 minutes….that’s about as much as I could handle. But – thanks to the lovely Christmas gift from my sister, I kept myself more than entertained, enjoying a few episodes of Gossip Girl (btw, what a great show! I’m hooked.)

We loved the town of Picton. It is a tiny and very cute seaside town nestled in the most gorgeous of settings. We were unable to find accommodation there in a hostel (they were booked everywhere), so we stayed two nights at a small bed and breakfast called The Gab les B&B. It is run by a lovely couple, Paula and Ian, and is an adorable home that used to be the home of the town’s mayor. The room we had was huge!! Plus we had our own bath, which honestly has been a luxury during our hostel stays and not always the standard. (We realized then how much we needed this respite from the hostels!)

We can’t speak highly enough of Ian and Paula. They were so nice and friendly, and each morning they had a wonderful breakfast spread waiting for us in the dining room (again – such a wonderful treat for some home cooked food after eating out for every meal). We really enjoyed our stay there, and it’s going to be hard to go back to hostel living for the rest of our tour of New Zealand. (Since I’m in charge of booking the accommodations, I might find that other towns are completely sold out too…).

During our stay in Picton, we took a water taxi up the Queen Charlotte Sound (one of many sounds around Picton) to hike the Queen Charlotte’s Track, a hiking trail that hugs the coast along the sound (which, if done in full, takes about 3 -5 days to hike). We decided to do a day hike only, so the boat dropped us off at one point (Ship Cove) and picked us up at another point (Fearnaux’s Marina), 14 kilometers down the track . The hike was really beautiful (and really exhausting!). We ended at Feurnaux’s Lodge, a luxury resort on the sound coastline intended as a lodging point for those who are doing a multi-day hike. We had some beers there to reward ourselves for finishing the strenuous hike, and I do think they are one of the most deserved beers we have enjoyed so far!

Today, we were sad to leave Picton and our hosts, Ian and Paula, from the last two days. But we look forward to enjoying our next stop on the South Island: Nelson, where we plan to stay for three nights.

We are kayaking and hiking tomorrow in Abel Tasman Park, and then we plan to do some wine tasting the following day. We hope everyone is having a good time back home. We miss you! Cheers!